For most readers of my blog, it’s “taken as read” that building a list and keeping in touch with subscribers is an important part of your online marketing.

So you will find Nick bringing you more advanced ideas to enhance this essential strategy.

Over to Nick….

How To Get More From Your Email Marketing

Over the last few years, it seems that conversations about email marketing have taken something of a backseat to newer and more exciting topics in the realm of digital marketing. This might lead some to believe that email marketing is a dying trend, but the numbers tell a different story.

Most marketers (89%) still say that email is their top source of leads, and according to research from Salesforce, it is still one of the top sources for analytics data. When you look at numbers like these, you see that email marketing is not going anywhere. It can still be a valuable component of any digital marketing strategy, especially once you use email checkers to clean your lists and get your emails into inboxes. You just need to know how to get the most from your efforts.

With newer digital marketing concepts taking up more of the conversation, this has led some to neglect their efforts in email marketing. You hear about it less, so you might not give this part of your strategy the attention it needs. In this post, we are going to take a look at email marketing campaigns, and discuss some ideas that can help to get your efforts back on track.

Integrate Social Media

Social media and email might seem like different ends on the digital marketing spectrum, but they are two strategies that can work well together. Even if you are having success with your email marketing or your social media strategy, combining the two will have some significant benefits.

By integrating social media in with your emails, it can increase the reach of your campaign. There are a lot of people that can become aware of your business through social media, and your emails can encourage this kind of growth.

You can increase your subscribers list through social media and it gives existing subscribers more options for connecting with your business.

One of the first ways to take advantage of this boost to your email campaign is to add social media icons to your emails. It may seem obvious, but it is the first step in enhancing your emails and expanding their reach. Just make sure the icons are in a place with good visibility. They won’t have much of an effect if they don’t get noticed.

You could also add snippets to your emails with the “retweet this” link attached. Find tweets that can fit in well with the message of some of your emails, and you can get subscribers to retweet. This can be good for getting subscribers to promote your message on Twitter.

Brainstorm more social media-centered ideas that can help your email marketing. For example, you could launch an effort to gain more email subscribers through a variety of social media channels. Additionally, you could add an opt-in form for your email list on your social media pages.

Use Social Proof

Social proof can be a powerful tool across a broad range of digital marketing strategies. If people see that a lot of other people are doing something, they also want to do it. If people see that a company has tons of satisfied customers, they assume that they will also be satisfied.

With email marketing, one of the best ways to do this is to advertise the number of subscribers on your email list. When a potential subscriber sees that there are already tens of thousands of current subscribers, it sends a signal that there is some value to being on the list with all of these other people.

You could also encourage subscribers to write reviews, and try to write emails that will generate conversations among your audience. If you can get people talking, it will get more people interested in your brand.

Grow Your List

One thing about email marketing is that you have to make regular efforts to grow your subscriber list. You don’t want to just build a good list of subscribers and rest on that. You need to keep growing that list, and you need to make sure to send out emails regularly.

When it comes to building your list of email subscribers, there are several methods you could try. One of the most common ways is to add a button on various pages of the website that leads visitors to a sign-up form. More commonly, you employ one of the many services that add a form to pop up when people navigate to certain pages on the website.

As we mentioned before, social media can offer some great opportunities for growing your email list. You can not only simply add a sign-up form to some of your social media pages, but can also target social media users in a campaign to grow your list of subscribers.

Add links and calls to action in your different social media posts, or add these elements to blog posts and pages on your website. If you make YouTube videos, you should add links in the description that can link people to your email sign-up page.

Your current subscribers can be a resource in gaining new subscribers. Encourage them to refer friends to your business and your email list. Incentivize this behavior by offering some kind of reward for getting people to sign-up. Even a small discount can be a great motivator among your current subscriber list.

If straightforward referrals are not working, you could even ask your subscribers to forward your emails. Run an email campaign with a promo that offers a discount for forwarding the email to a certain number of friends.

Use Automated Messages

Automation has become an important part of email marketing. You can use automation in a number of ways, but you still want to ensure that it comes across in a way that seems personalized.

As an example, you should have an automated email set to go out whenever you get a new subscriber. You can select a number of other events that will trigger an automated email, but you want it to at least appear as though it is coming from a real person.

One way to personalize an email is to use the person’s name in the greeting. You also want to customize the text of the email based on the event that triggered it. In other words, you don’t want it to be a generic “thank you” email.

Another good idea is to allow the recipient to reply to the email. Most of these emails come with a “do not reply” text. This is a dead giveaway that it is not a real person sending the email. Connect the automated emails to a real address that somebody uses. When people reply, read the replies and respond.

Make It Easy To Unsubscribe

This might seem like it runs counter to the logic of growing your email marketing efforts, but it is a common courtesy that your subscribers will appreciate.

To start, it helps to build trust with your audience. By making it easy to unsubscribe, it can prevent issues that may arise when people have a hard time unsubscribing. If people have difficulty unsubscribing, they might go to social media to complain. Then, this can cause other people to think twice before joining your email list.

Email marketing has been around for a while, and for some people that might make it seem like it has less value than other, newer digital marketing strategies. The truth is that email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to connect with an audience. When it is done right, it offers one of the best ROIs for your marketing dollars.

About The Author

Nick Harley is the Senior Content Specialist for NeverBounce, the leading real-time email verification and cleaning service. With a background in journalism, public relations, and social media, Harley is interested in helping organizations and brands understand the importance of storytelling and the channels where those stories are delivered.

Conclusion

Thanks to Nick for those advanced tips on how to get the most out of your email marketing campaign. I’d love to hear YOUR experiences and thoughts in the comments below.

Related Posts

Joy

I left it too late to plan for a financially secure retirement. Don't make my mistake. Start building an extra income with a part-time (or full-time) business online.
Think you don't have time? Can't afford the start-up cost? Can't meet sales targets? The businesses I promote overcome all the problems you may have had with Internet Marketing before. Contact me for free advice (no obligation) on the best fit for your circumstances.

I’ll start the ball rolling with a comment of my own reinforcing Nick’s remark about the need to make it easy to unsubscribe.

This has been something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for a while now…

The number of lists to which I stay subscribed has decreased, as I have focused more closely on my goals. So…. why might I be getting emails on topics that I have no interest in whatsoever? Hmmmm – someone is selling my name on. OK, well no surprise there, folk need to make a living I suppose.

However, when I receive an email I KNOW I didn’t agree to receive, if there is no obvious unsubscribe link, I am brutal with the “Junk” button. That won’t do a lot for their reputation / deliverability!

Furthermore, if I am “tricked” into receiving emails by not spotting that I have to opt-OUT of a list…. that also has my finger hovering by the Junk button, if I can’t find the unsubscribe link.

Lest anyone think I’m not a fan of email marketing, let me say right away that there are some emails I really welcome. However, by minimising the number of email lists I willingly subscribe to, I am able to give my attention to the quality emails that I requested and welcome.

First of all a warm welcome on Joy’s blog. I really appreciate each and every word which you have written in this spectacular post. Because you have shared some great information about email marketing. Implementing these steps in a right way are handy to attain good results.

Hey Joy
Email marketing is really good, we know that , and your these tips are really helpful for us, but I want to know about Facebook marketing, how I can sell our products on Facebook, I really appreciate you if you write about Facebook.
Thank you for sharing

Hi Joy and Nick, I have just grabbed an affiliate link for a product and they have specified in their ‘rules’ that they won’t entertain sellers who have no option to unsubscribe on their emails. I didn’t even know people still did that! You are right, an easy to see unsubscribe option (and one that WORKS) is essential. The amount of spammy emails I have tried to unsubscribe from where the links don’t work is unreal!

I also think the emails have to fit your list. If they subscribe for a purpose then meet that purpose, don’t wander off onto something completely unrelated as it will get you a bunch of complaints straight away.

Sadly I get tons of emails with no unsubscribe link – and emails that have nothing to do with anything I might ever have subscribed to. I suppose these people get away with it because they’re using junk emails, rather than their own domain and they don’t care whether the email gets a bad reputation or not.

The other day I got three identical emails, from 3 different “people”, offering me a broadcast to a million emails. I’ve not asked for anything like this for years – that’s not email marketing, it’s just plain spamming. And no doubt that’s what they would do with my broadcast, were I silly enough to buy one!

Hey Nick and Joy,
I must thank you for sharing such an informative and technical post that is helpful for email marketer like me. I usually used to collect email from leads and set automated software for sending people emails. But, I have come to know about the automated message and social media integration from your post. I will try to do as you mentioned on your post. Also, will research more about the social media integration for email marketing. Again, lots of thanks.

Hi Nick,
When started by blogging career I was not aware of the email marketing and thought it is worst. But slowly I learn about the email marketing and these days I am getting 30% of blog traffic from email marketing.
You have shared an awesome post.
Keep it up.
And have a good week ahead.

Hey Joy! Nice to meet Nick here today my friend! And I just love all his tips on how to get more from email marketing. I for one cannot believe I have never thought about adding social media icons in my emails! So Simple HUH? I love it!

Good tips! I tend to be conservative when it comes to building my list because I want people who WANT to be there rather than signing up just to get a freebie or because they’ve been tricked into it. As a reader, there is nothing that pisses me off faster than to suddenly find I’ve been added to a list – not because I signed up but because I didn’t see a tiny little box to uncheck! That aside, I do think it’s time to get a bit more assertive with my efforts so I appreciate the advice. 🙂

Yes, I hate being added to lists because I forgotten to opt-out. It makes a nonsense of the term opt-in!

Likewise, people who sell my name will find I opt-out pronto. The other day someone started emailing me about TRUCKS for heavens sake. Like I’m going to buy a truck from some random email when I have never expressed the slightest interest in the topic.

I agree – stick to people who are on your list because they WANT to be, and guard them protectively.

Awesome tips over here, Indeed e-mail list is one of the most effective tool that we all blogger community is blessed with.
We always see that how top notch bloggers always end in saying that to achieve the success we need to build our e-mail list very strong.

Earlier when I started my career I was not focusing on my e-mail list, lately this year, hearing from so many bloggers I gradually began to grow it and began to see positive changes over time.

Automated messages do really help, I see how I follow people on twitter, then there is a message regarding thanks and a link to their web site or work is being attached to it. I am also planning to set up an automated message for my social media accounts.

Despite the abuses made by some unethical email marketers, email remains an effective way for selling, pushing website traffic, building relationships and maintaining brand loyalty. But, as Nick pointed out in this post – ‘it ‘ain’t easy!’

Joy, I also try to limit time spent deleting useless & unwanted email messages. Really annoying are the email marketers who don’t offer an ‘unsubscribe’ option because they argue they’ve your permission because you once upon a time (yeah, just like in a fable) “you’re a customer”. Oh well, more power unto those who understand that selling is helping…
Edward

Great tips for email marketers! I think this is the “hot topic” in the IM world right now. I’ve been seeing a lot from several people on how important it still is.

I agree with you on making it easy for people to unsubscribe. I really don’t know why you wouldn’t do that, because honestly, if someone doesn’t want to be on your list, why would you want them there. I used to get really upset when people unsubscribed from my list. Now I don’t even get notified, because if they don’t want to be there, they’re not my target market anyways. 🙂

This is a helpful article!Something worth of a bookmark :). I am hoping that email marketers will take your advice of making it easy to unsubscribe. I had an experience that I have to fill up 4 forms and it’s disappointing that they are making it hard to unsubscribe. Thank you for pointing it out.

Great Informative Post, Nick. Yes, Email marketing is definitely a great way to increase your leads but with the potential security and filters that popular email hosts are adopting, its getting difficult to penetrate to the audience. There are only few email marketing service providers with efficient email delivery. For Example – Google Gmail has filters under Primary, Social and Promotions Tab. Thanks!

Sometimes I earn affiliate commissions on products that I recommend. This is at NO extra cost to you. I will never recommend a product if I don't believe it is good value for money.

Statutory Warning

It is illegal for a promoter or a participant in a trading scheme to persuade anyone to make a payment by promising benefits from getting others to join in a scheme.
Do not be misled by claims that high earnings are easily achieved. My team and I have worked hard to achieve our success. YOUR results will depend on how diligently you apply the free training provided to help you.